Jideh nodded enthusiastically, "I am loud and weird. You are absolutely correct Zeke!" He swallowed the last bit of granola and felt his stomach digesting comfortably. There was a threshold where he had to stop, for his own safety, in case the calories had not yet been absorbed by his body. [i]Enough showing off Jideh,[/i] he thought disappointedly. 

Dia caught his eye, and Jideh really looked at her for the first time. She seemed to be trembling, practically shaking with... fear? Anticipation? Nervous energy? She reminded Jideh of his little sister, who had serious problems socializing. His parents were still trying to get her to make more friends when he had left for the Academy. Jideh wondered if Dia was going through something similar, and he knew how much his sister had appreciated when people came to her, and just spoke to her, and let her listen.

Jideh got up, and very slowly but deliberately made his way around Zeke to Dia and sat down gently next to her. He smiled again, not touching her at all, but just being next to her and admiring the Academy grounds.

"We're all new here Dia, and I hope you're doing okay being away from home. There's plenty of reasons to be worried, this being a new world and all. Although, I am confident that after a few months here, we'll all be feeling right at home. I mean, just look at this place! It's incredible! There's lakes, forests, mountains, jungles, I even heard that there's an underground river of lava! Dia, I can't imagine what it is you like to do, or what your passions are, but I know that there will absolutely be a place for you here. I can already begin to sense my own place here in fact. That greenhouse behind us, it's chock-full of rare and beautiful plants! I can show you some of them if you like, because that's me. I like plants, and there's nothing else I know more about! Just in the two minutes I spent inside, I saw a whole pile of plants I've never seen before! Elementalists might be able to help plants grow here at the Academy that can't grow anywhere else! It's just... Wow."

Jideh was watching Dia as he spoke, thinking she was pretty somewhere in the back of his head, mostly considering how her nervousness mirrored that of his sister's. Of course, Jinnah Basrah was a five year old girl, and Dia had to be at least as old as Jideh. A growing nervousness of his own crept up in his throat, as he wondered if he'd grossly misjudged the situation. He felt a lump form in his throat and to distract himself, he reached into his pocket. 

Jideh felt a seed, and smiled, the tension in his throat loosening. He produced the seed for Dia and didn't bother handing it to her, simply placing it in front of her. "There you go, that seed will grow into something beautiful if you desire to plant it and take care of it. That's my gift to you. I hope you decide to nurture it, since I think you would appreciate its beauty."

Jideh realized he'd never blushed this hard while talking to a girl, and he immediately shifted over a bit, giving her space. He hung his head and fiddled with the granola wrappers. [i]What am I doing? Am I crazy? Or just too used to life on the farm?[/i]

[@Regitnui] [@Old Amsterdam]

[hr]

The seed looks like this.

[hider=Lilac Seeds][img]https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-94ed0297d3a42af97fa06a68853ce4ca-c[/img][/hider]